I have taken a shine to the Great Northern's "Big Sky Blue" livery - don't ask me why... I just have. The GN ran into Canada with it's famous "International" from Seattle to Vancouver and the "Winnipeg Limited" from St Paul to Winnipeg so the "theory" that the GN would be near the Puddington Valley Division holds some water.... I have decided to build a "sort of" foobie consist; that is to say I am building real GN cars, and with one exception putting them in BSB as they had been (the tail observation never made it...) and running a "imaginary" special called the "Stampeder"... My theory being a series of specials would run each summer from Seattle, east and then north though the Puddington Valley to Calgary for the world famous "Calgary Stampede".... horsemen; farmers; ranchers; cowboys and many others would pile aboard and enjoy a "party trip" to the biggest annual western party of them all.... This is the eventual consist.......all in BSB F45's and / or F7's.... CPR Horse Express car 50' express box car Smoothside full baggage Baggage/Mail express - being used as a dormitory 60 seat coach 48 seat coach 48 seat coach Dome coach Ranch Coffe shop (Crossley Lake) Great Dome (Lake View) Sleeper-Club Car (Winnipeg Club) Pass Sleeper Glacier Sleeper Glacier Sleeper Lounge-Observation -Sleeper (Port of Vancouver) I'm by no means finished but here's where we are so far......... Kato coach custom painted and another............ Ex "Empire Builder" coach... "Winnipeg Club" was a converted Glacier Duplex sleeper that was modified with a lounge-bar section - it ran exclusively on the Winnipeg Limited ( except in my world ) next - more cars.............
More BSB cars for the "Stampeder"............. Crossley Lake is a "Ranch" Series Coffee Shoppe car originally assigned to the Empire Builder; she is going to be open 24 hours a day for the "Stampeder"...... The "star" of the show is, of course, the "Great Dome" "Lake View"..... she is reserved for Pullman sleeper passengers and is found mid train.... "Winnipeg Club"; "Crossley Lake" and "Lake View" are all brass side cars; as will be the "Glaicer" and "Pass" series of sleepers and a "Dome" coach. The coaches are Kato and Con Cor cars; the bagage will be Con Cor, Express Mail will be a brass side conversion and the tail observation will be a modified Kato car.... I also plan to build a leased Canadian Pacific horse transport car to add to the consist; after all; the "boys" wanna bring their "transportation" to the Stampede, now don't they ? I'll post more as they arrive from the backshops of "Mike-O-Trains".........(that's me) Thanks for looking !
There's no reason to ask why you've taken a shine to that scheme, it's clearly obvious that it is one of the best schemes ever! I may be a little partial tho, lol. Good job on that consist, it's looking very good.
Very well done! A plausible story and great modelling. But would the train really run "West" from Seattle? Running it East would keep it dryer... ) Thanks for sharing Cheers Dirk
"West from Seattle"....sigh.....never type a post whilst watching your team get the axle grease kicked out of it........."I make a da fix..."
The name is "Samuel Ridge".... the name of the small town that that portion of the layout has... named for my son......
I've migrated to the head end of the Big Sky Blue consist and started with the "easy car" (more about that later) - the 50' Express car..... The Great Northern had 46 or so of these unique 50' cars. They were basically the same "low" footprint as their express reefers but without overhead hatches; with a large regular style door and with passenger trucks...... nothing to it - right ? Wrong..... I decided to modify a MT 50' express reefer.... first we "killed" the walk way roof hatches; filled and sanded. Next I sanded the plug door applicances off and found a couple of "donor" doors; these were cut in half horizontally; sized for the lower car, modified by removing a section and then glued together and placed on the car.... a painfully delicate and "precise" effort. The size of the car dictated some "MacGivered" decal work after the car was primed and painted BSB... The herold and road name from a Microscale Airslide hopper sheet was used and then various other lettering and decal sheets donated the road number and car information..... all in all much more work than I had thought but the car "fits" the consist..... Awaiting express packages at Samuel Ridge.... On it's way to Calgary with those drunken cowboys on their way to the Stampede..... Next - the Baggage RPO.......
Now isn't that interesting; the only photo in BSB I had clearly showed the running boards removed and the ladders cut down; yet this version in MOW livery still has them on; I wonder if perhaps those that went to MOW with BN never got chopped...? Many thanks for the pic; wish I'd had it before; but it looks like I got "close".....
This might have been the only one done this way. The others might have had theirs removed. Either way, your model is very cool. The car is in Cleburne Texas right now.
So it's been a while since I posted - two new cars have joined the consist; the first is a smoothside RPO converted for baggage express/dormitory use..... The RPO windows were covered over inside to give the appearence that the RPO section isn't in use. The "theory" is that the car has been converted to express/crew dormitory use. Brass sides for a GN RPO were used and painted in BSB. These cars were built for the Empire Builder's original smoothside consist but got shuffled to secondary trains after only four years of service; that fact lead me to think that their conversion to express use, or as a crew dorm wouldn't have been too far fetched..... WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR HARD CORE GREAT NORTHERN FANS.... THOSE DEDICATED ROCKY-ITES MAY WISH TO ABORT THIS THREAD NOW... VIEWER DISCRESSION IS ADVISED..... The GN "International" contained one of two unique cars to the Great Northern Railway; The "City"; later renamed the "Port" cars; The "Port of Spokane" and the "Port of Vancouver"... The Port Cars were rounded tail observation cars with a lounge and a custom's official office. The U.S and Canadian Customs clearence was done on route, speeding up the trip due to no border delays. The cars have never been modeled commercially and I had no intent of filling windows but felt that by modifying the tail to include the large end light and by removing the skirts of a Kato car I could have a "close enough for Puddy" version.....did I mention it would be painted Big Sky Blue..... PUDDY........GET REAL; THOSE CARS NEVER WERE PAINTED BSB.... NO OBSERVATION CAR EVER WAS !!!!!! NOT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL; NOT FOR THE WESTERN STAR; NOT FOR THE EMPIRE BUILDER... NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!" "Snicker".......... see, I told you this could be bad for the true GN hard core.............. Resplendant in Big Sky Blue the "Port of Vancouver" visits the Samuel Ridge station as part of the "famous" (ok; famous on my layout) GN special " The Stampeder".... direct service from Seatlle to Calgary daily during the Calgary Stampede, via the Puddington Valley.... The car even carries the unique "Stampeder" drumhead..... The car has my usual details, painted and detailed interior; GN style window blinds; wire grabs and interior passengers....The marker lights on the car are UP style so I'm still fussin with them.... oh well.... The "Port of Vancouver" is a self confessed foobie - wrong windows (close) wrong livery (not close..LOL) and wrong time frame - she'd have been retired or sold by 1973, and was BN, but those are mear details.......and in creating the car I now see one issue - the "Great Northern" logo on the lead end of the car is an issue if it has to go on the leading end on both sides; you have to change the orientation of the words. On this side of the car it is correct; on the opposite side the "T" in Great and the "R" in Northern are pagenated together as opposed to the first letters.... "logo infraction...." Even "Rocky" as to face a different direction on the other side..... "serious logo infraction"...... Oh well............maybe that's why the GN never did it ! I don't care if she's a "flight of fun and frolic"; I think she adds a touch of class to my "Stampeder"..... Next we'll tackle the dome coach and sleeper section...a mixture of Pass, Glacier sleepers and few foreign road invaders......
Suffice to say, those Observations would've looked really nice in BSB too! Great looking cars all of them!
